A Confusing Babel World (Lent 18, 2023)

We can’t look at the Image of God today without asking ourselves
why doesn’t the world look like we display the Image of God?
Disorder. Disunity. Disinformation.
Almost every kind of diss you can think of
and exactly the opposite of the Image of God.

Why is that?

Way back in Genesis, just after the Great Flood, people gathered in unity (which we’ve talked about can be a very good thing) … except once sin entered the picture, not so much.

Genesis 11:4 Then they said, “Come, let us build ourselves a city, with a tower that reaches to the heavens, so that we may make a name for ourselves; otherwise, we will be scattered over the face of the whole earth.”

Their unity was devoted to being gods themselves—ah, yes, that same old temptation that Satan gives to mankind. They started to build a tower and God saw it and said (paraphrased) “Nope, not happening. That’s a hard no.” Genesis 11:6 The LORD said, “If as one people speaking the same language, they have begun to do this, then nothing they plan to do will be impossible for them. 7 Come, let us go down and confuse their language so they will not understand each other.”

Look over God’s statement and you’ll see God’s Image being illuminated: unity, relationship, endeavor, creating, inventing, ingenuity, aiming for the impossible. God saw His Image displayed, but with the wrong motivation. Just like Adam and Eve wanting to be “like God” so much they wanted to be gods.

Focus for Lent: The motivations of our hearts need alignment with God’s will.

Questions for further thought:

God scattered them and gave them confused language. How has this proven an effective strategy to keep mankind from being a one-minded group to rule in godless ways?

On one hand, scattering and confusing seems cruel, but one-minded godless rule may help us to see that it’s not cruel at all. In fact, Revelation 13:4-8, Scripture says, the beast had “authority over every tribe, people, language and nation. All inhabitants of the earth will worship the beast”. How is unity here like Babel, making a name for itself with godless rule, “Who is like the beast?”

Does God want a unified, one-minded group ruling in godless ways? Does God want us to have a “one-world government” or globalism with one rule that is not under Christ on whose shoulders the government is supposed to rest? Do attempts at one-world unity love Christianity or want to squash it?

In Revelation 13:15-18, it continues, “The second beast was given power to give breath to the image of the first beast, so that the image could speak and cause all who refused to worship the image to be killed. It also forced all people, great and small, rich and poor, free and slave, to receive a mark on their right hands or on their foreheads, so that they could not buy or sell unless they had the mark, which is the name of the beast or the number of its name. This calls for wisdom.”

Read again, all, all. When sin creates the unity, it does so by force…mandate…intimidation. Can you think of recent incidents where something is attempting to create unity by mandate or governmental decree? At what point does the mandate become striving for unity in worship of other gods: government, nature/climate, science, etc.?

Prayer: Lord God, preserve us from trying to make a name for ourselves, from trying to have a one-world government to rule over all of us. In the beginning when You gave mankind the stewardship of all of creation and ruling over all the animals, the point was not to rule over each other, or worse, choosing a supreme being from among men. So, we ask Lord that You would help us to resist that. A focus on unity rooted in sin brings no glory to you. Instead, may we pursue a unity rooted in You. We thank You, Lord, that You said that you wanted us to be one as You and the Father are one and that’s how the world will know that we are Your disciples. Help us, Lord, to resist the world and instead, respond to Your will and Your governance. We are grateful, Lord, for Your goodness to us. In Jesus’ Name. Amen.

===

If you’re already signed up on my Home Page sidebar to receive posts, you’ll get the 2023 Lent Devotionals automatically. Or you can “Like” Seminary Gal on Facebook and they’ll be delivered to your Facebook news feed. If you haven’t signed up, today is a great day to do so. Advent and Lenten devotionals remain among my most popular offerings. You don’t want to miss this encounter with God to prepare your heart for Easter! Understanding that prior years’ devotionals continue to minister, you may want to have access to a full series ahead of time:

Lent 2013 looked at The Letter to the Romans: Paul’s Masterpiece to reclaim foundations of our Christian heritage and began February 13, 2013.
A very special and ever popular offering was Lent 2014’s Be Still and Know that I AM God which can be obtained through the archives beginning in March 2014.
Lent 2015 began on February 18, 2015 with a series entitled With Christ in the Upper Room: Final Preparations. We explored what is often called “The Upper Room Discourse” found in John chapters 13-17.
ReKindle, the Lent 2016 series, began on February 10, 2016 and encouraged us to rekindle our spiritual lives.
Light: There’s Nothing Like It was the 2017 Lent series and explored this metaphor often used to portray Christ. It is archived beginning March 1, 2017.
Lent 2018, we explored the questions of Pi and Chi (the Greek letter beginning the word Christos, which means Christ, Messiah, the Anointed One). We asked and answered the questions “Why?” from the movie Life of Pi as we discovered the uniqueness of Jesus Christ in a world of many faiths.
Lent 2019 gave us a deeper window into Easter “More to the Easter Story” since we miss so much when we rely only on a superficial understanding of the work of Christ. These devotionals are archived beginning March 6, 2019.
Our Lent 2020 devotional series offered prayer points surrounding “Be Thou My Vision” and were aimed at helping us to see God for who He is. The full set of devotionals are archived beginning February 26, 2020.
The theme for 2021 Lent Devotionals was how to live between two worlds while waiting for Christ’s return. Into the gap between the City of Man and its fixation upon sin and the City of God with its demand for holiness, two words minister peace: But God. Praise God for His intervention! They are archived beginning February 17, 2021.
Last year’s devotionals, Revelation in 40 offered 40 vignettes, scenes, concepts, and thoughts to inspire us to read the Book of Revelation as it is written and to go deeper. They are archived beginning March 2, 2022.